


Visit an old friend

by AwkwardBundle



Category: Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon)
Genre: Family, Friendship, Gen, Kinda?, Past Character Death, in the sense that Beatrice is dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 02:43:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13378437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwkwardBundle/pseuds/AwkwardBundle
Summary: One year after their time in the Unknown, Wirt and Greg decided to visit Beatrice.





	Visit an old friend

**Author's Note:**

> It may not be Halloween, but I will forever love these characters. First time posting a story for them, so I hope you enjoy!

“Wirt, come on! You’re so slow!” Greg bounced on the balls of his feet, holding his lucky frog Jason Funderberker close. His brother ambled along the sidewalk, going far too slow for Greg’s taste, his hands in his pockets and his head angled up towards the trees above. Wirt only laughed at his brother’s accusation, not speeding up in the slightest.

“Let me take in the autumn colors, Greg. Beatrice can be a bit patient, as can you.” He looked down, giving his younger brother an easy smile. Greg huffed, slumping a bit.

“The autumn colors aren’t gonna fade away, brother o’ mine. Patience is for squares, and I’m a Greg.” He puffed up his chest, trying to look bigger than his seven-year-old body actually was. “I’m one of a kind.”

Wirt snorted. “You certainly are.” Autumn colors fading away… there’s a poem in there somewhere, Wirt mused, but he couldn’t go deeper into that thought as Greg had given up waiting, and was now tugging on his hand to make him pick up speed.

“Beatrice is waiting, Wirt! It’s been a year since we saw her, let’s go!”

“It’s only been a few days since we talked to her, Greg, slow down!” Wirt dug his heels into the ground, slowing his brother down enough for him to swing Greg up onto his shoulders. Jason Funderberker was tucked under one arm, and Wirt began his leisurely stroll once again.

“Talking isn’t as good as seeing!” Greg ruffled Wirt’s hair, only getting a slight protest out of the older boy. Sure, they talked to Beatrice’s grave every few days, but it was Halloween! A whole year since they saw her in the Unknown! They had to see her today, it was a special occasion.

They came up on the cemetery, passing under the Eternal Gardens sign, heading for the older section in the back. Shortly after their trip to the Unknown, Wirt’s curiosity had gotten the better of him, and went back, looking at the graves for any familiar names. He had found Uncle Endicott’s next to Mrs. Grey’s, their tombstones connected through a winding vine of ivy, while Langtree’s had been farther away, her’s almost covered by leaves and grass. It didn’t take long for Wirt to find Beatrice’s, in a large group in the back of the cemetery with the rest of her family. He had only mourned her for a bit, knowing that she was with her family in the Unknown. Eventually he took Greg with him, and they started visiting every week or so, telling her about their day and week or to read random bits of poetry.

That brought them to today, where Greg was practically bouncing himself right off Wirt’s shoulder’s in his excitement. When they reached Beatrice’s grave, and patted Wirt’s head until Wirt set him down. He accepted Jason Funderberker from his brother, and plopped himself down in front of Beatrice’s grave.

“Hi, Beatrice!” He said, leaning forward. “I have so much to tell you!”

Wirt settled himself down next to his brother, leaning back on one hand. “Hey Beatrice.”

“This visit’s super special, you know! It’s been a whole year since we had our adventure!” Greg said, “So Wirt said we could stay longer!”

As if he heard Beatrice protest in his head, Wirt shrugged and said, “It is a special occasion. I thought it called for a special visit.”

Greg cheered “Yeah! A super special visit! But, oh, you know that test I told you about last time? I got an A on it! My dad helped me study, and I got all of them right!” He smiled brightly, then turned to Wirt and poked him. “Tell her about your date.” He whispered, saying the last word in a sing-song.

Wirt flushed, shoving his giggling brother over. “It wasn’t a date! I just helped Sarah study English. Just a study session, you know, like you and Dad did?” He ruffled Greg’s hair, laughing. “You little twerp.”

“Dad and I studied time tables. You study looove.” Greg held the word out, batting his brother’s hand away.

“Stop it! It wasn’t a date!” Wirt’s face was burning, but that didn’t stop him from shoving his brother into the dirt and messing up his hair. As Jason Funderberker hopped to safety, Greg cried, “No! My wonderful ‘do!”

They wrestled for a bit, but Greg eventually wriggled out of his brother’s grasp and huddled up against Beatrice’s gravestone. “Protect me, Beatrice!”

Wirt laughed and sat up, trying to catch his breath. “I’m done, Greg. You don’t need Beatrice’s protection.”

Greg sniffed, raising his chin. “Maybe I want it.” He froze, then whirled around to face Beatrice’s gravestone. “Oh! So, in gym we’ve been doing those test things to test our gym abilities, doing stuff like speeding around the gym and jumping off trampolines-”

“Running and seeing how far they can jump if they want to do track.” Wirt clarified.

“-and I got the farthest jump today! Even farther than Tommy Wilson, and his sister’s in the jumping league!”

“She does pole vaulting.”

“Tommy wasn’t upset about it though, ‘cus he can run faster than I can, so he said we were even. And then, we went to science and got to see baking soda turning into foam using vinegar, which was so cool!”

They continued on like that, telling stories and talking, only fighting once when Greg insisted that Wirt had kissed Sarah while Wirt denied it, saying it was only a hug. The two sat in front of Beatrice’s grave for over an hour, and only stopped when the sun began to set and Greg gasped.

“Halloween! We have to get home so we can get our costumes! Okay, we gotta go now Beatrice, but we’ll be back soon! Bye, we miss you!”

For a moment, Wirt saw a girl, her red hair pulled into a messy bun. She was pushing herself up from the top of Beatrice’s headstone, where she had been sitting, her bright blue dress swaying in the wind. She flickered out of sight, but Wirt knew he had seen her smile, and could just barely hear a faint “I miss you, too,” in the breeze. His breath hitched, but he smiled and said, “Goodbye, Beatrice.”

As they left the cemetery, a few leaves, picked up by the breeze, swirled around the two brothers. One settled on the Wirt’s shoulder, and he didn’t bother brushing it off as Greg laughed and ran ahead. Wirt hummed quietly, thinking over a that phrase Greg had said earlier. Autumn colors fading… He looked at the leaves still floating through the air, and continued following his brother down the path towards their house as fragments of a poem went through his head.

_How the gentle wind beckons through the leaves as autumn colors fall…_

**Author's Note:**

> As always, kudos and comments are appreciated!


End file.
